made herself , Franca is impossible to miss : fashionable , flamboyant and fabulous .
Source : Bruno Quinney Source : Charlotte Stead
Franca explains that many Italians come to London in search of idealistic opportunities and a better life , but they are often met with a different reality . Lots of migrants imagine their lives in London to be a promise of success , filled with countless job offers and the excitement of living in England ’ s capital . The reality is often strikingly different . Franca sees herself as one of the “ lucky ones ”: she was born in London and grew up in her parents ’ house , which she was then able to inherit . But this is not the case for many young Italians who travel over today .
“ Many Italians come to London in search of idealistic opportunities and a better life , but they are often met with a different reality .”
Through people like Franca , Casa Italiana tells the stories of almost seven decades of Italians living in London . And yet the building ’ s very construction owes to a much broader picture of Italian immigration in the UK , which has shaped British Italian identity .
Source : Bruno Quinney
Records indicate that Italians migrated to Britain in the early nineteenth century , leaving behind what was then an agricultural Italy for an industrialised Britain . In 1837 , Giuseppe Mazzini , the revolutionary figure who would become key to Italy ’ s Unification , was exiled from his home nation and settled in London .
Mazzini found himself within a pocket of Italian migrants , many of whom were living in poverty . In efforts to educate children of these impoverished families , Mazzini founded the Free Italian School in Hatton Garden , just around the corner from Casa Italiana .
Source : Charlotte Stead
As London ’ s Italian community grew , the identity of Clerkenwell Road changed with it . St Peter ’ s Italian Church was built to cater to the Italian Catholic demographic , opening in 1863 . Shortly after in 1878 , the Italian delicatessen
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